Stonehenge's Altar Stone came from northeast Scotland—not Wales as previously thought. Chemical analysis matched it to the Orcadian Basin. In the 1950s, Richard Atkinson excavated hole WA 3639, which contained a fragment of a Group 1 stone axe. Researchers remain uncertain whether the Altar Stone once stood upright; the video argues that it stood on the primary axis there before being laid flat around 2500 BC and that its orientation helped track solar and lunar movements.
Altar stone traced to Scotland; video argues it once stood upright
EnglandArchaeoastronomy
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Key facts
- A 2024 Nature study matched the Altar Stone's chemistry to the Orcadian Basin in northeast Scotland; earlier proposals included the Preseli Hills and Brecon Beacons in Wales.
- Chemical analysis of small blue-grey fragments removed from the Altar Stone during 19th-century excavations supported the Scottish provenance.
- The Orcadian Basin includes some of Britain's oldest rocks and lies north of the Iapetus Suture.
- Richard Atkinson excavated hole WA 3639 in the 1950s and found a fragment of a Group 1 stone axe.
- The video argues that the Altar Stone once stood upright on the primary axis at WA 3639, was laid flat during the main stone phase around 2500 BC, and that Stone 11 was later positioned to preserve the sightline.
- The video argues that the stone's roughly 80-degree orientation and the Station Stones could track the Sun and Moon across the sky.
- The video suggests that people from Orkney brought this sky knowledge south and selected Stonehenge's latitude, potentially explaining the monument's location.
Sources
stonesofstonehenge.org.uk
Linked in video description
Stonehenge: Central Altar Stone from Scotland not Walesbbc.com
The six-tonne Altar Stone at the heart of Stonehenge came from the far north of Scotland rather than south-west Wales as previously thought, ...
Stonehenge Altar Stone was 'not sourced from Mainland ...nessofbrodgar.co.uk
... Altar Stone came from north-eastern Scotland. This five-metre-long sandstone block lies at the centre of Stonehenge but is barely visible ...
The Origins of the Stonehenge Altar Stoneleakeyfoundation.org
In our new paper published in Nature, we have traced the Altar Stone's source to north-east Scotland, meaning it traveled at least 430 miles ( ...
Altar Stone (Stonehenge)en.wikipedia.org
Research published in 2024 claims to show that "the Altar Stone's age fingerprint identifies it as coming from the Orcadian Basin in north-east Scotland".
A Scottish provenance for the Altar Stone of Stonehengenature.com
by AJI Clarke · 2024 · Cited by 35 — Such a provenance implies that the Altar Stone, a 6 tonne shaped block, was sourced at least 750 km from its current location. The difficulty of ...
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